Seventy years ago yesterday on August 29, 1951, Meyer Goldberg opened his very first supermarket in Lorain. It was located at 3810 Broadway, just across the street from the brand new A&P that had opened just a little more than a month before.
Above is the full-page ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on Monday, August 27, 1951.
The Meyer Goldberg store on Broadway was the first in a chain that would eventually include two other locations in Lorain (Oberlin Avenue and Oakwood Shopping Center), as well as stores in Elyria and North Ridgeville.
Any Lorainite over fifty probably has fond memories of the stores and the personalized service they were famous for.
An article (below) that ran in the Journal on August 29th, 1951 provides a nice description of the open house held on the eve of the store opening.
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Doors Open Today at New Supermarket
Throngs At New Store
Guests from as far west as Los Angeles, Calif., and as far north as Detroit, Mich., last night attended the open house at Meyer Goldberg’s super market, 38th and Broadway.
The open house, held for business people who played a role in construction of the new market, marked the culmination of two and one-half years of planning.
In this length of time, Goldberg and his wife, Mrs. Francis Goldberg have inspected outstanding markets all over the country. The best ideas of each have been incorporated in the new market.
The building, an 80 by 80 modernistic structure, contains refrigerated equipment which came from Los Angeles. Representatives of the refrigerating firm, contractors, businessmen, and others connected with the construction of the new market were on hand last night.
Guests came from Cleveland, all parts of Ohio and several from Michigan in addition to those who came from Detroit.
Today souvenirs and free samples were handed out as the market got off to its regular seven-day routine of 8 a. m. to 10 p. m. store hours.
Goldberg and his wife are directing the entire operation and have a staff of 25 to serve the public. The owners of the new market have a lengthy background of personalized grocery service in this area. Goldberg’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Goldberg, established their first store in Lorain on 13th-st. The family came to Lorain in 1921.
Goldberg, with the exception of his college years and four years of army service, has been in Lorain for the past 30 years. Since he graduated from Western Reserve pharmacist school and served as a pharmacist in the army, he has incorporated a large drug department in the new super market.
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Meyer Goldberg Supermarkets have been a favorite topic on this blog.
Posts include a 1962 Meyer Goldberg ad featuring Huckleberry Hound; an appearance by Ghouldardi at the Broadway and Oakwood Plaza stores in 1963; one devoted to the chain’s 15th anniversary in 1966; a then-and-now photo study of the store on Oberlin Avenue; and a few of my own reminisces about shopping at the Oberlin Avenue store.
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Today, the original 3810 Broadway Meyer Goldberg store is home to Dollar General. The building has been expanded and remodeled over the years.
2 comments:
A staff of 25?Wow!What did they all do?Stand around and watch each other.Now the current tenant of that location,which is the aforementioned Dollar General,is lucky to employ 2 or 3 people at any given time of the day.And the employees work like dogs for very little pay.One person will have to stock the shelves,price the merchandise,unload the delivery truck,inventory the merchandise,clean the restroom,work the cash register,plan the schedule,etc.The list goes on and on.All for the very low wage of $8.00-$11.00 per hour.Or less!But when Meyer Goldberg opened up it was a different time in America.Companies used to care for their employees.Companies used to pay them a livable wage.Companies thought about the community.Not like today where companies only care about the almighty buck and nothing else.Why just last month at a Dollar General in Pittsburg,the 2 employees of the entire store walked out and quit because of the deplorable conditions of working there.So the store closed up for the day.From the long hours to the way they were treated,they walked.(That there socialism is looking better and better every day.)Meyer Goldberg sounded like a very nice well respected decent man.We need more Meyer Goldbergs in the world.If there's one thing good that came out of Covid-19,it's that people are starting to wake up and realize that they are worth more than they are being paid.As Tim Misny would say,"It is time to make them pay!"
My Dad was the butcher at this Meyer Goldberg supermarket. We lived around the corner from the Goldbergs and we’d always go their home for Thanksgiving dinner. Very nice people.
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